Get Adult Swim legend Andy Merrill back to television!
The Issue
As you may have heard, this past April during the 30th anniversary of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, it came out that Adult Swim co-creator and animation legend Andy Merrill had been laid off by Cartoon Network to cut costs and had been forced to take work delivering Amazon packages in between his too-infrequent voice work and convention appearances, as he receives no residuals from with work at CN.
Andy Merrill was not only the co-creator, writer, and voice actor on Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Brak Show, and Cartoon Planet, as well as voice actor on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Assy McGee and many other classic Cartoon Network shows, but he was also a producer and programmer for CN and Boomerang, though he is best known to audiences as the voice of beloved character Brak.
He tweeted, “If you would’ve told me 30 years ago that today, I would be at the bottoms rockiest rung of the rock bottom ladder, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
As the story unfolded, it came to light that MeTV had interviewed Merrill for a Executive Producer or Senior Producer position for their “Tune In With Me” programming block, where they show many of the same cartoons that Merrill programmed at Boomerang. After 8 interviews that Merrill describes as amazing, they went silent for 5 weeks. Upon prompting, they admitted that they had just promoted from within.
It also came to light that he had recorded a voice for a possible Disney show called Club Sandwich, for which the network went as far as to produce a pilot only to decide not to pick it up. Of course they won’t release it to be produced elsewhere.
Similar fates have befallen his Adult Swim colleagues Carey Means and MC Chris, who have had to take to the internet to raise funds.
But there is hope!
Merrill’s above tweet went viral as rabid fans of his work descended en mass to support him, surging his X follower list to more than 25,000 in short order.
One of those fans, best-selling novelist Jason Pargin said in a viral TikTok video, “Let me be absolutely clear, there is no Adult Swim without this guy. …Very few people in history have changed the industry the way Andy Merrill and the Space Ghost crew did. The tone of comedy changed with this. The working comedy writers today grew up on this, and that includes me.”
Merrill responded to the outpouring, “I’m getting a little verklempt here, but you guys have really helped me. I’ve been really happy this week and I’ve been so sad and depressed for so goddamned long. Thank you. Now let’s turn this into something great! I’m getting a little verklempt here, but you guys have really helped me. I’ve been really happy this week and I’ve been so sad and depressed for so goddamned long.
Thank you. Now let’s turn this into something great!”
Let’s urge MeTV, Disney, and the other networks to do right by this animation legend, and put him back to work creating the programs that we love!
Petition Closed
The Issue
As you may have heard, this past April during the 30th anniversary of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, it came out that Adult Swim co-creator and animation legend Andy Merrill had been laid off by Cartoon Network to cut costs and had been forced to take work delivering Amazon packages in between his too-infrequent voice work and convention appearances, as he receives no residuals from with work at CN.
Andy Merrill was not only the co-creator, writer, and voice actor on Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Brak Show, and Cartoon Planet, as well as voice actor on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Assy McGee and many other classic Cartoon Network shows, but he was also a producer and programmer for CN and Boomerang, though he is best known to audiences as the voice of beloved character Brak.
He tweeted, “If you would’ve told me 30 years ago that today, I would be at the bottoms rockiest rung of the rock bottom ladder, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
As the story unfolded, it came to light that MeTV had interviewed Merrill for a Executive Producer or Senior Producer position for their “Tune In With Me” programming block, where they show many of the same cartoons that Merrill programmed at Boomerang. After 8 interviews that Merrill describes as amazing, they went silent for 5 weeks. Upon prompting, they admitted that they had just promoted from within.
It also came to light that he had recorded a voice for a possible Disney show called Club Sandwich, for which the network went as far as to produce a pilot only to decide not to pick it up. Of course they won’t release it to be produced elsewhere.
Similar fates have befallen his Adult Swim colleagues Carey Means and MC Chris, who have had to take to the internet to raise funds.
But there is hope!
Merrill’s above tweet went viral as rabid fans of his work descended en mass to support him, surging his X follower list to more than 25,000 in short order.
One of those fans, best-selling novelist Jason Pargin said in a viral TikTok video, “Let me be absolutely clear, there is no Adult Swim without this guy. …Very few people in history have changed the industry the way Andy Merrill and the Space Ghost crew did. The tone of comedy changed with this. The working comedy writers today grew up on this, and that includes me.”
Merrill responded to the outpouring, “I’m getting a little verklempt here, but you guys have really helped me. I’ve been really happy this week and I’ve been so sad and depressed for so goddamned long. Thank you. Now let’s turn this into something great! I’m getting a little verklempt here, but you guys have really helped me. I’ve been really happy this week and I’ve been so sad and depressed for so goddamned long.
Thank you. Now let’s turn this into something great!”
Let’s urge MeTV, Disney, and the other networks to do right by this animation legend, and put him back to work creating the programs that we love!
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Petition created on May 3, 2024